Dance
by SpidersBlood
Summary: An OC has an embarrassing picture of Snake, and he finds himself chasing her around the Nomad to try and destroy it. OCxOld Snake. Feedback needed
1. Fun with Camera

I NEED YOUR HELP. If the story sucks, please let me know how to make it not suck. If not, enjoy!

…

One moment, he had been following her gentle instructions on how to perform a particularly odd dance move, enjoying her close proximity and her guiding hands as well as being able to witness her copying the move directly in front of him. He was certain she must have looked cuter dancing than he did.

In the next moment, there was a flash of a camera, a "Shit!" from the normally clean-mouthed-in-front-of-Sunny younger woman, and then Snake knew that there must be something about the dance she hadn't told him, or that there was something amusing about watching a retired veteran soldier dancing like that… maybe both. Whatever the reason was for her taking the photo, he knew he didn't want her to keep it.

And so began the chase, that is, it could have been considered a chase if he wasn't far stronger and more experienced than she was (not to mention more skillful with close quarters combat). She would never stand a chance against Snake in a race or a physical battle, even without his sneaking suit.

Fortunately for her (even with his IQ of 180) she still had some knowledge that she could use to her advantage. She maintained a steady and speedy thought process even as he caught up to her. With a false cry of defeat - a half-lie acted out with perfection as he closed the distance between them - she was snatched into his arms. She resisted only briefly before emptying out a tiny compartment of the camera.

"All I need is the memory card," she declared with a smirk - a misleading facial expression - and she dropped the small object down her shirt to land, as far as Snake knew, somewhere in her bra.

It was a "no entry" zone for Snake. Was he tempted to reach in anyway to grab would could otherwise become potential blackmail in the future? Of course, as a single man in front of a single, younger and not-so-innocent girl who must have been aware of the risk of invasion long before tossing a desired item between her boobs, he was _tempted_, as anyone would be. But, he was aware of the trauma that sexual harassment (no matter how inappropriate _her_ actions were) inflicted on a woman her age by a man his age could cause… And Meryl's voice was still ringing in his head…

"_I'll never forgive that womanizing piece of shit… Men… selfish, egotistical pigs!"_

He had thus concluded that it was in both of their best interests (or perhaps mostly her best interest) that he… abort. Was this really game over? Was there no alternate route?

Meanwhile, she considered this to be a partial victory. Partial in that it seemed that Snake was no longer after the photo, and partial in that as she pulled away from him, she knew his touch would be missed. With her victorious smirk still in place, she began to move away from him.

It was a flawed exit. As she pulled herself free of his reluctantly loosening grip, his fingers brushed against a sensitive part of her abdomen (and the fact that it was _Dave's_ fingers only enhanced the feeling). She let out an involuntary giggle and twitched away from him.

If it had only been a subtle movement, he may not have noticed. However, the combination of the supressed giggle and the nervous glance back at him told him everything he needed to know.

"You're ticklish."

This was not something he would discover very often about people, considering he was often surrounded by people involved with the battlefield, and they never engaged in _tickle fights_. Despite this, and despite her denials and protests, Snake found the act of tickling to be easy and its results to be effective. Within moments he had her pleading for him to stop, and a few moments after that she surrendered and gave him the tiny object that he presumed to be the memory card.

"Otacon, delete everything on this."

"Why?" Otacon had been preoccupied with Naomi until this point, and held out his hand for Snake to give him the object in question.

"Just do it," Snake commanded, and he could hear her behind him saying "Don't do it!" It was too late for her to do anything about it, now. Snake had triumphed, Otacon was about to load the file on to his computer and delete it.

"Uh, Snake, this is the battery for the camera. There won't be anything stored on it."

What?

Snake turned around to check on the camera that he had abandoned. Sure enough, she was there, staring like a deer in headlights with the camera in her possession again.

"You know, if you wanted his attention… well… have you asked him?"

Snake ignored Otacon's teasing tone and wrote it off as one of their geeky inside jokes. She, on the other hand, knew that Otacon was addressing her, and felt her insides turn, remembering how Otacon would tease her while Snake wasn't listening (and how the teasing would gradually become less and less innocent than what she would expect from the _otaku_).

"_You do know that you're attractive, right? If you asked him, I'm sure he'd tell you the same thing."_

"_If you asked him to kiss you, I'm sure he'd do it."_

"_If you asked him if he stared at your behind for as long as you stared at his…"_

And so it was that Otacon could say "Have you asked him?" and she would become flustered because she knew what he was talking about and Snake wouldn't because he didn't (although, Otacon also frequently told Snake that she was _crazy about him_ when she wasn't listening, to which Snake's only reply would be a grumble and a shake of the head).

No longer paying attention to Otacon, she turned and ran around the helicopter as if her photo of Snake doing a ridiculous-but-cute dance depended on it. And so Snake pursued her as if he would be able to retrieve the actual memory card this time. Using the same tactics as before (tickle/torture her until she had to surrender the camera) Snake managed to retrieve the device and hand it to Otacon.

"Huh?" Otacon said immediately after grabbing the memory card, "This isn't the memory card that I put in here! It must have been switched around."

Again, Snake turned around and again, his target had a futile attempt at hiding and escaping. Behind the helicopter, Snake had her pinned down in seconds.

"Where's the memory card?" Snake asked, allowing her to breathe so that she could speak.

"If you really want to know… you'll have to kiss me!" It sounded stupid, even to her. She couldn't believe she had asked something like that of him, and she was starting to regret it, but she was more than ready to say something like _"I was only kidding! I'm not about to give you the memory card!"_

…

Solid Snake was not easily surprised Dead bodies? No problem. Deadly mechanically armed women killing everyone around him? Barely a grunt from the shock. A man who he watched die appears years later alive and well? A simple 'What the hell?" that could be mistaken for frustration is sufficient enough to summarize his emotions at the time. Indeed, Snake had calmly faced multiple bizarre and frightening experiences without showing much of an emotional reaction.

Now, here he was pinning down a woman to the floor of the Nomad, a strange enough situation as it was, but now she was asking him to kiss her, a possible sign of attraction towards him, something he had given up on at the first sign of his untimely wrinkles.

Excited? Hopeful? Pleased? Were these emotions crossing his mind?

Unimpressed? Awkward? Disgusted?

She waited for an emotional response that she knew would never come. His facial expression had not faltered for even a moment. The only change to his features that he allowed to show through was the transition from playfulness (from chasing her around) to seriousness from the genuineness and vulnerability of her question). Aside from the faded grin, Snake displayed no emotion whatsoever, except perhaps that he was thinking. But what he was thinking was what she wanted to know.

…

Of course, she has a name. I decided not to include it, since she may be intolerable to read about, anyway. I'm under the impression that Snake would not kiss her. I do have more planned, but I'll save myself the trouble of typing it out if the story is no good.


	2. Jackal

I literally kept JGBishop24's review open on a separate screen while typing this out. This one's for you!

…

_Around 24 hours earlier…_

"Commander! What's happening?" she was nearly shouting into her radio.

"We've been discovered! Liquid's going to cut us off from the system any minute. If any of you escape, you are all to report to the commander of Rat Patrol 01. Clear?"

"… Got it."

She had really done it, this time. It was normal for her to stray from her unit to find a more ideal position to snipe any enemies that would threaten them - in fact it was often seen as an asset. And using the system only made it easier for her to be able to locate her comrades and to know which ones needed immediate aid.

However, this time, she had strayed just a bit too far to be able to find them before the Haven Troopers did. She would have to move fast.

She had been hiding in one of the many nearly destroyed buildings, not far from the sound of battle cries and explosions. Her original intention was to find a higher viewpoint to keep an eye on her unit, but hiding from both the PMCs and the Militia didn't make that easy for her.

Now she wasn't sure if she wanted to continue climbing, or stay close to the ground and find her comrades. Perhaps she ought to immediately try to locate the Rat Patrol 01? She could feel herself start to panic, but the system wouldn't allow that to escalate.

Remembering that she only had the system for a limited time, she decided that it was in her own best interest to find a hiding place. She had never experienced the battlefield without the system, and was not looking forward to it. There was no guarantee that she would survive long without it.

She left the building and began searching the back ally-ways, hoping to get as far away from any signs of battle as possible. How far would they search for her?

Suddenly, she felt fear, but it was not her own. It belonged to one of her comrades. She could tell that he needed help if he was to survive, but she could also tell that he was far away. As quickly as she had sensed his emotions, they disappeared. He had been executed.

And she continued moving.

"Hey…" A hushed, calm voice called out to her from her right and she looked to see who was lurking in the back streets. He wore an odd mix of a purple dress coat and military style camouflage pants. He was waving a white cloth. "You lookin' for a place to lay low?"

How would he know? She was hesitant to approach him, instinct telling her to avoid unknown men, but she didn't have many remaining options.

She took a step closer to him, hoping to examine him further, but didn't get far.

Something broke.

…

There were various points, within the next hour or so, where she thought she was going to die. Her heart beat was so fast and erratic that she couldn't relax. Her breaths came out in sobs or screams or angry heaves. She was blinded by visions of the people she had killed and the people who had nearly killed her. She was deaf except for the cries and wails of the souls tortured by war. And all the while, all she could feel was the sickness to her stomach, the pain in her head, and the ice-cold sweat on her skin.

When she came to, Drebin explained that the reason why he helped her was simply in the name of good customer service. When she asked how he could know whether or not she would become his customer, he replied,

"You've been locked out of the system. Where else do you plan to purchase weapons, except from a gun-launderer?"

…

"Is that _the_ legendary Solid Snake?" she asked Akiba in a hushed tone.

"Huh?" the soldier had not been paying attention to the conversation, preferring instead to scope the outside scene. "You mean that old guy?"

"Yeah, but our commander referred to him as Snake." She knew that Snake was looking a little older than she would have expected (considering he should have been in his prime only nine years ago,) but who else could this be?

"I guess that's him, then…"

"Have you read 'In the Darkness of Shadow Moses'? Romanenko claims that he used non-lethal blows, stealth, and an M9 when he could help it." She really admired the way he didn't kill people when he could avoid it. Ever since she had been cut off, she knew she couldn't handle the guilt of taking another person's life the way she used to, either.

"Yeah, the book was OK, but _I_ was _there_."

She gaped at him.

"I wasn't bluffing when I said I was a ten-year vet."

Wanting to know more about the hero in the room, she crept closer to where he and Meryl were sitting.

"Who's the girl?" she could hear him ask. This question alarmed her slightly, since she tried to hide her feminine features and was not often recognized as a woman so quickly.

"She's not really part of our unit. She was part of another inspection team hired by the CID before her team was discovered and killed. We've been calling her 'Jackal.'"

"Jackal?" Snake repeated back to her.

"Yeah, it's because-" Meryl stopped her explanation when she noticed 'Jackal' walking behind her. She turned around in her seat and pointed at her, much like an owner would point to a dog, "Hey! I don't need you wandering off right now!"

"Yes, Commander!"

She wasn't about to go wandering off. Meryl returned to her original topic with Snake, which was disappointing for her, since she really had no idea why the Rat Patrol was calling her "Jackal."

…

The transition from normalcy to chaos was swift. One moment she had been a few paces ahead of Akiba - trying to keep an eye on Snake - and the next she and Akiba were witnessing their comrades writhing on the ground. She recognized the symptoms, having suffered them merely hours earlier. She realized at that point that Akiba must have never had the system, as he also seemed unaffected by the loss of the system.

"Hey - Jackal - I could use your help over here!"

"Yeah? So could he!" she gestured towards Snake, who was struggling to maintain consciousness.

In the end, Akiba resigned to helping her carry Snake away from the setting.

"Stay with Snake, I'm going to go help the others."

Not a problem.

It took a surprisingly short amount of time for a helicopter to arrive, considering she hadn't contacted anybody. When the aircraft landed, she recognized the pilot as Dr. Hal Emmerich.

"Thanks," the doctor said as he helped her pull Snake aboard, "And could you hand me that Metal Gear Mk. II over there?"

"Metal Gear?" She whipped around, expecting a giant bipedal robot, but instead saw only a small bipedal robot. It was kind of cute, though she felt a little intimidated as she lifted it off the ground.

"Don't worry, it's not meant for hurting anyone."

She climbed on with the Mk. II while he was preoccupied with moving Snake around to a safe position on the helicopter.

"Ah… are you coming with us?"

He said the idea first. If anything, he put the idea into her head. She smiled and nodded, holding the Mk. II on her lap. It occurred to her that maybe the doctor didn't quite know how to deal with girls, and so he let her tag along.

He wasn't particularly worried about trusting her, since she was a part of the CID and temporarily a part of Meryl's unit. He just wasn't sure if that was breaking protocol.

Aboard the Nomad, while Snake was still unconscious, she received a call from Meryl. She explained that she was with Snake, and Meryl declared that she really was a jackal, and she - not knowing much about jackals - still didn't understand why.

There was a lot of tension when Snake first woke up. He was highly suspicious of her for following him on to the Nomad.

"This isn't some kind of party. Why would you invite her on board?"

"Well - I don't know! She was a part of Meryl's unit, and she _did_ drag you out of that situation at Liquid's base! Besides, I've just finished running a background check on her and haven't found anything particularly suspicious…"

It was just like Otacon to wait until it could have been too late before investigating his sources - just because he _wanted_ something to be true. No matter how many deaths he witnessed, there was a certain naivety about him that refused to die. Snake growled and sized her up.

"You're not about to kill anyone with that Mosin-Nagant and those stun grenades."

"If I had wanted to kill you, wouldn't I have done that instead of guard your body until Dr. Emmerich arrived?"

He shook his head, but seemed to come to terms with it.

"While you're here, why don't you go up there and teach Sunny how to cook properly?"

The look she gave him must have been venomous.

"… I was kidding."

…

There were plenty of topics that came up in conversation that she didn't understand. One was why Liquid was still alive, another was who the Patriots were, and the final one was Naomi Hunter - the woman who tried to kill Snake nine years ago (and yet, according to Romanenko, didn't have enough resolve to not regret it, later.) Though, as an outsider and a rookie and possibly an intruder, she decided she didn't have a voice.

"Twenty hours until we land, got it. I'll have a look at the documents. Maybe I'll even have a smoke while I still can."

She resisted - with difficulty - the desire to grin at Snake's attitude. While it amused her, it was also sad to see her hero killing himself further with cigarettes.

Despite her efforts, he caught sight of her restrained smile and smirked back at her. The attention nearly had her melting and she mentally scolded herself for not having better control over her thoughts.

It was at times like these that she missed the system.

…

"May I go with you when we arrive in South Africa?" She figured she had a lot of nerve to ask such a question, but it wasn't like she had anything better to do.

"Not a chance. In fact, the next time we cross paths with Meryl, you're going straight back to her unit."

Unsure of how to argue against his authoritative tone, she merely wrung her hands and continued to stand in front of him and maintain eye contact.

"You would only slow me down."

"You could leave me behind. I'm supposed to be dead, anyway."

"That's not how it works." Snake knew that the time of leaving people behind and letting people die was behind him. "I won't be saddled with the responsibility of looking after you."

"I don't see what the big deal is…" Oh great. Just what Snake needed - Otacon and his misguided optimism. "I don't think she'd get in your hair. She was often regarded as an advantage in her previous unit as a sniper. She's good at sneaking and hiding..."

"Things are different without the system. War is not some kind of a game-"

"I'm not playing around! Besides, I'm an adult, and you and I don't take orders from each other. What will you do? Will you try to stop me from leaving the Nomad when we get there?"

"I'm considering it."

There was a moment of tensity and Otacon was afraid that she would give up. Secretly, he wanted her to go on this mission with Snake. Sure, she wasn't nearly as experienced as he was and, even though he had never seen her in action, it wasn't hard to believe that Snake was an infinitely better soldier than she was in many ways. But it would ease his mind a little to know that Snake wasn't completely alone out there.

"Look, Snake… I'm sure she's capable of handling herself out there on the field. She may have been relying on the System before, but that doesn't mean that _all_ of her previous experience and training goes out the window." He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Hey! I could even make her an OctoCamo suit like yours! That kind of technology could probably make up for the loss of the System. You really wouldn't have to worry about her."

Recognizing a lost argument, Snake grumbled his disapproval and went back to reviewing the mission details. Her eyes lingered on him for a moment before turning her attention to a smiling Otacon.

"I'll have to take your measurements."

"Um? I thought you were just saying that. Making me a suit would have to be a complete waste of time, material, and effort. Besides, I've always made due with procuring my own camo."

"Of course, you'll have to return it after the mission, and it probably won't have the muscle stimulation features that Snake's has… But I have nearly twenty hours and - you'll have to take my word for it - designing stuff like this is just something I enjoy doing." He decided not to say that designing OctoCamo for a woman would probably be AWESOME.

…

When Snake Was Attacked by Bears:

She felt completely responsible for causing Otacon to work so hard on a new OctoCamo suit and felt terrible about it, but she decided not to dwell on it.

While waiting for its completion, she ate all the eggs that the two men refused to eat - and without complaint. This seemed to brighten Sunny's mood. She didn't know exactly how to interact with the child prodigy, but decided to chase Sunny around the Nomad with two teddy bears that she found by some chicken cages, making them kiss her whenever she caught up to the girl. This was a method she would often use when breaking the ice between herself and a child she was babysitting for the first time, and she was _very_ thankful that it was working with Sunny - even with all her timidness.

She noticed Snake watching them with an amused look on his features. In response, she made one of the bears kiss him on the cheek. This made Sunny clasp her hands over her mouth and giggle quietly, but the female soldier couldn't help the reddening of her cheeks when she realized how odd that must have been.

"I'm too old for bears."

A more childish part of her that would normally have been repressed by the System caused her to grin.

"Oh, sure. Like there's such a thing." She tossed a bear to Sunny, who immediately got the message and the two girls changed the rules of their game.

There were absolutely no circumstances in Snake's life that could have prepared him for an onslaught of loving bears, so his first response was to jerk his head away, then to block the bears with his arms, then to swat at the bears, until finally he was forced from his seat to stand up. Sunny was no longer able to reach him, but that didn't stop the jackal. What _did_ stop her was Snake, who had, before her eyes could even process his movement, taken the bear away.

"Hey!" she protested, but Sunny handed her the other bear. Snake was just as quick to disarm her a second time. She reached for them, but Snake was significantly taller than her and held them high above his head, grinning all the while at the girls' attempts to regain control.

One of her lunges nearly successfully recaptured one of the bears that Snake was holding hostage, so he found himself backing away from them. Sunny grabbed hold of his leg, while her teammate tried to pull one of his arms closer so she could grab a bear.

"Ah - hey!" Snake's objections came out as chuckles, and he surprised himself when he realized that _this was fun_.

"What are you guys doing?" Otacon asked when the noise picked up. The two responsible adults didn't seem to know the answer right away.

"Puh… Playing!" The word sounded so natural coming from Sunny. Snake looked with bewilderment at the woman who caused this game to start in the first place, wondering how he could feel so comfortable around someone who was nearly a stranger to him. He also wondered if she was at all cut out to be a soldier, or if maybe she was better off being a schoolteacher or something.

…

"There's no way I'm going to fit into this…" she said, holding the suit in the air.

"It should. I followed the measurements exactly."

"You're just used to your bulky uniform."

"Ah… You can get changed upstairs. We just won't go up there until you come back down."

She was highly skeptical that it would fit, but was pleasantly surprised when it did. She could not remember being that small ever in her life, though she supposed a mix of a change in diet, increased exercise, and being accustomed to wearing larger clothing was to blame for her shock.

But now she noticed that there would be no mistaking that she was a woman. It wasn't that she was particularly pretty - in fact she found her figure to be quite plain, and when not plain, kind of masculine - but the suit clung tightly to her body and she immediately felt self-conscious. Taking a deep breath, she began to walk down the stairs.

Snake had also changed into his OctoCamo, as they were approaching South America. He heard her coming down the stairs and waited by Otacon. The first thing he could see was her legs, and as she continued her descent, he realized that OctoCamo looked _completely_ different when worn by a woman. He raised his eyebrows at Otacon, who caught his gaze and then tried to look nonchalant.

"So, does it fit?" Otacon asked her. Snake muttered something like _sure looks like it's fine_.

"Ah, yeah. Seems fine."

"Not too hot or cold? The suit should be able to regulate body temperature."

"Yeah, seems good."

"Should be flexible," Snake said, suddenly sounding like a confident expert on OctoCamo. He demonstrated some stretches that he seemed to want her to copy. She did, and was slightly stunned to see Snake's eyes travelling to where they maybe shouldn't. Instead of the feeling of discomfort or paranoia that she was expecting to feel in response, she was appalled to find herself excited, and mentally scolded herself again for feeling so.

Otacon couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes.

…

Snake and Jackal were just outside the PMC Pieuvre Armement's base. It was Otacon's suggestion to help out the South American rebel guerrillas, even though they weren't really on one side or the other. His reasoning was that they could help the pair advance further into the PMCs' base. Therefore, Jackal took it upon herself to tranquilize any PMC soldier she could.

Despite her initial skepticism, she found that OctoCamo was one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Hiding from view and sniping her enemies just got a lot easier. Sure, she was still scared as hell if she got too close to a gunshot that wasn't hers, but using the camo and hiding in shady areas reduced her stress significantly.

In the worst of times, she found her adrenaline and instincts kicked in enough to get her through.

Despite _his_ initial skepticism, Snake found that Jackal was a proficient enough soldier. He had a feeling that he didn't _need_ her on this mission, and he had a feeling that she would not be able to complete this mission in time without him (as she took a long time to move, hide, snipe, move, hide, snipe…) But at least he wasn't having to look after her all the time, and she made progress a little bit easier for him.

They didn't interact very much, and were often quite far away from each other. They hadn't used the codec even once to contact each other.

Actually, Jackal was not entirely sure how to use the codec, yet, so she avoided the use. But, after taking another alternate route in the water and coming across some floating dead bodies, she found herself a tunnel (possibly used for drainage or as a sewer system) and called Snake.

"What's your situation, Snake?"

"I'm fine. What's wrong?"

What was wrong? She hadn't thought that one through. She had been spooked by the corpses and instinct caused her to call Snake. She felt like an idiot, but knew she couldn't think about that now.

"Nothing, nevermind. I'm in some sort of sewage tunnel or something. I'll contact you if something goes wrong."

Snake hoped she wouldn't make a habit of making needless codec calls in the middle of a battle.

…

She was in complete instinct mode. She had been hiding under an Ural-4320 truck and had shot two uncomfortably close PMCs, which caused them to fall unconscious, when she heard Snake's approach. At first, she didn't know it was him and so aimed her gun at his feet, but she instantly recognized the OctoCamo shoes and legs. He crouched down, his backside facing the vehicle. Not too far behind him were some rebels (who, to be honest, would probably be dead if it were not for Snake).

Instinct causing her to think fast (or hardly think at all,) she considered how to alert Snake to her presence - and let him know it was her and not an enemy soldier. Figuring _nobody would do this_ she quickly pinched his butt and crawled out from under the truck. It worked as she had expected (a surprised grunt and Snake's attention to her _without_ pointing a gun.) They were both running on instinct, though, and didn't even look each other in the eye because they heard gunshots nearby.

The rebels had shot the PMCs that Jackal had neutralized, ensuring they would never get up, and Jackal realized that just because she wasn't using a lethal weapon did not mean that her targets would not die. She held herself responsible for their deaths, but she and Snake didn't have time for those kinds of revelations.

…

Not too much farther ahead, Snake had run ahead of her and stopped nearby a Stryker to light up a cigarette. Jackal took this time to catch up to him. She considered asking Snake to stop smoking, but before she could say anything, there was a blur of movement in front of her, and a familiar monkey stood on top of the Stryker, holding Snake's cigarette. Jackal had hardly moved, but Snake was already pointing a gun at the monkey. The monkey tossed Snake an apple, as if to trade.

"Yo! Over here!" Drebin appeared around the side of the Stryker, waving his white cloth as per his usual greeting.

"You!" Snake and Jackal said, almost in unison. They looked at each other, suddenly having to accept that they had both met this guy.

"What an interesting comrade you've acquired there, Snake," he gestured to Jackal, "If you were dressed like that last time we met I may have mistaken you for one of the BB Corps. Come on, hop in. It's getting rough out there."

Because of Drebin's explanations, Jackal was able to get a pretty good idea of what the Patriots were. And she was relieved that Snake seemed to be learning, as well, so she was hopefully mostly caught up with the situation.

…

"Hey, Hunter," Jackal said through gritted teeth. The doctor, who had been sobbing inconsiderately, turned her head slightly to look at the female soldier, hand still covering her mouth. "Shut up," Jackal hissed discreetly enough for Snake not to hear. Naomi's took a sharp intake of breath, surprised at such rudeness.

"Alright. Let's just… get this over with."

Judging by Snake's tone and Naomi's reaction to his body, Jackal knew there had to be something about his age that she didn't know. His body was actually impressively fit and unrealistically well-muscled for a man who seemed to be in, maybe, his sixties. But Romanenko's description of Snake from 2005 didn't seem consistent with his appearance now, in 2014.

Nevertheless, Jackal was not about to stand by idly while Naomi wallowed in her own world of melancholy. For all Jackal knew, Snake's aging could have been caused by Naomi's Foxdie virus.

…

Biting her tongue had never been such a difficult task.

It was hard to hear Naomi talk about Snake as if he was some sort of tool, product… object… but she knew that Naomi was only telling the truth about how Snake came to be. It was worse to learn that Snake's condition was caused by his creators, shortening his lifespan on purpose so that he couldn't be used against them. It was cruel. It was inhumane.

It was worse still to learn that Naomi's Foxdie virus was starting to mutate. Here was Naomi, telling Snake that he should already be quarantined because the Foxdie might start targeting innocent people. Within three months, in the name of saving the world, a hero would have to kill himself.

But the most intolerable part of the conversation was when Naomi asked "Isn't it ironic?" There was nothing ironic about Foxdie. She created it, she injected Snake with it, and she tried to set it up to attack Snake's genes so that _he_ would die, too. It was not _irony_, it was _murder_.

But Snake had to see the bigger picture. They _needed_ Naomi and the information she could provide about Liquid.

…

Jackal couldn't interfere much while Snake was fighting Laughing Octopus. She was alright with hiding and neutralizing the Frogs, but when it came to Octopus, she just simply wasn't armed for the fight.

_Damn_, she thought as Snake narrowly escaped some of Octopus' homing explosives. If Jackal stayed close to Snake, they could hide briefly and she could provide him with regain or another recovery item, but she hated playing the part of the girl who was not involved with the battle. She made a mental note to maybe get some new weapons from Drebin.

Once Octopus took off her suit, Jackal suddenly began to lose control over her state of mind. It was the most unearthly experience - as if she and Snake were encountering the spirit world. At the same time, Jackal was facing all of her memories - the very same ones she had to deal with when she lost the system. She couldn't take it; the mental strain was too much. And so, the only way she could react in order to cope with her thoughts was to laugh. The laughing gave her just barely enough strength to keep breathing, to keep drawing breath. It occurred to her that she would not be able to help Snake like this, and so she laughed all the harder, forcing more air out of her diaphragm than she thought possible, sometimes choking from the effort.

"Otacon! What's going on? Jackal looks like she's losing it!"

"I don't know, Snake! I guess Octopus is affecting her mind or something- watch out!"

Snake quickly backed up to avoid Octopus.

"Snake, Octopus has taken off her shell. If she touches you it'll burn you. Keep away from her!"

It wasn't until Snake had completely depleted her psyche and she was curled up on the floor that Jackal stopped laughing. She tried to regain her bearings while Snake spoke with Drebin over the codec, but found herself unable to concentrate one hundred percent on the story of Octopus' childhood.

…

Even though she had just witnessed a man get shot in the head and then get up and move again (and it was safe to say that Vamp was the creepiest person she had ever seen,) she still had trouble believing that anyone would be able to stand on top of a Stryker while it was moving at top speed, turning corners, bumping into rocks, machinery and other tanks. And she would _never_ believe that anyone would be able to _fight_ in these conditions.

And yet, it seemed willpower could conquer all, as she and Snake stood on top of Drebin's vehicle and worked on destroying obstacles that the Stryker could not.

After a while of Jackal grabbing on to Snake's arms, torso, or any body part that would keep her from falling off the Stryker, it became apparent that Snake was much better at maintaining balance than she was. So, she was left to 'man' the machine gun (as it was attached to the vehicle) and shoot down the Gekkos and the legs of the soldiers using powered suits.

The most challenging enemy was the giant set of doors that she had to shoot open. They took so long to take damage that she worried she wouldn't break them down quickly enough.

…

After setting up a space for Raiden on the Nomad, Jackal was glad to finally be able to relax for a bit. Missions were always so time-sensitive - there was no time for them to do this or that, they needed to get to some place at a certain time… Time was an unexpected stress factor that Jackal had not anticipated being an issue.

However, there was a different kind of tension aboard the Nomad. Naomi was frequently grabbing Otacon's hands and pulling him closer to her, leaving Snake and Jackal to glance awkwardly at each other in discomfort.

Jackal gave up on being included in the conversation, having recognized this feeling of exclusion from high school. She dug her iPod out of her older clothes and moved to a more secluded part of the aircraft.

Whenever Snake tried to talk about the mission, he felt as though he was interrupting something. He eventually got the idea that it would be better to leave those two alone and go upstairs to have a smoke. Unfortunately, Sunny wouldn't even allow that.

…

Later that night, the girls disappeared upstairs. Jackal had asked to borrow Snake's camera and he obliged, having not really much need of it so far. Every so often, Otacon and Snake could hear the girls making noise and laughing upstairs.

"So…" Snake said to Otacon, who appeared busy in his usual position in front of the computer. "You and Naomi seem to be getting pretty close."

"What?" Otacon suddenly appeared flustered. "I-I have no idea what you're talking about?"

"Come on. Every time I try and talk to you it feels like you two would rather be alone."

"Well, maybe," Otacon chuckled quietly and muttered "Now you know what it's like hanging out with you and Jackal."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, I'd say that she's pretty crazy about you…"

"When pigs fly, Otacon."

"No, _not_ when pigs fly! She plays kissing games with you using teddy bears; she's flustered pretty much every time you look at her…And _I saw her pinch your butt!_ The signs are all there in plain black and white!"

Otacon showed Snake the Mk. II's footage from under the truck, where Jackal had indeed pinched his behind.

"We were in the thick of battle, she just did what her instincts told her to do."

"You mean to tell me that her instincts tell her to pinch people's behinds to get their attention? How come I've never been pinched?"

Snake was about to say something like _Because she's not interested in pinching you_ before he realized that that was exactly what Otacon was saying. He figured this must be false, so he tried to drop the subject.

…

Snake was lying on the bench on the opposite side of the Nomad of Raiden, leaving an unlit cigarette in his mouth. He was accustomed to listening to the hum of the Nomad and Otacon's typing, and was contemplating getting some sleep. His thoughts of drifting off were interrupted by Naomi and Otacon, who had started talking as if no one else was listening. He didn't mind at all, but it was easier to ignore their advances on each other when he had company.

He then got to thinking, _where did Jackal go?_

"No," Snake could hear Naomi saying to Otacon, "Leave them off. It makes you look handsome."

And with that, Snake decided to get up and look for the wandering Jackal.

And he found her pretty quickly. She was behind the helicopter with not a care in the world, dancing and listening to her iPod. He tapped her shoulder and she quickly stopped and pulled out her headphones.

"Doing some kind of aerobics?" he asked. She smiled at him.

"That implies that it's meant for something serious, like exercise. I'm mostly just trying to avoid Romeo and Juliet."

Snake chuckled. "Good idea." She laughed with him.

"Hey…" she said, "You wanna dance?"

Author's Notes:

I spent at least eight hours trying to figure out what code name to give her. Tried to introduce it slowly, but… *implodes* I'm super subconscious because, well, Metal Gear is complicated, and I've probably destroyed it beyond recognition.

I've contemplated and re-written her introduction to Snake so many times in the past few months. Oddly, each scenario relied heavily on Johnny Sasaki (Akiba). Many of them were snoozers, though.

_Tell_ me you wouldn't want to have OctoCamo.


End file.
